


they came from planet earth!

by johnchurch



Category: Kid Cosmic (Cartoon)
Genre: Drabble, Found Family, Gen, Missing Scene, Pillow Fights, Sleepovers, and also kiiiind of a chuck character study if you squint?, cartoon supervillainy, chuck basically being jo and rosas big brother for 2000 words, episode: s01e04 kid cosmic and the local heroes!, inspired by a scene from kipo and the age of wonderbeasts, listen the found family... it gets to me...
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-13 06:08:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29522028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/johnchurch/pseuds/johnchurch
Summary: When the dastardly space invader Stuck Chuck finds out the key to defeating Kid Cosmic once and for all, his plans are put on hold by the one thing he couldn't have (but really should have, considering how things have been going) accounted for in his schemes to obtain the Rings of Power - babysitting.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 60





	they came from planet earth!

Oh, this was perfect. This was _too_ perfect. In fact, Chuck (which was _not_ his actual name, and was subsequently one he found impossibly stupid) would have to mark this down as the first truly perfect thing that had happened to him since he’d arrived on this pathetic planet. 

Getting the Kid’s morale low enough to steal the Cosmic Rings of Power wasn’t exactly as easy as the alien had hoped; thanks to a combination of the Kid’s frankly ridiculous optimism and his outnumbering Chuck four (and a good number of clones) to diddly squat on the supportive teammates front. He’d attempted time and time again to plant as much doubt in the young Earthling’s mind as he could muster, seemingly to no avail. For a moment, it was all beginning to make him start to doubt himself instead, which was not a feeling he was used to nor liked.

Tonight, though, that was all going to change. Tonight, he would finally secure his victory, the Rings, and get in contact with his Great Leader to receive all the accolades and recognition he so very much deserved for all the nonsense he’d had to put up with during these past few weeks.

Well, that and a new pair of legs. Which he would need if he wanted to get the tape in question into the stupid player now that Rosa had taken back her wagon for the night and the Kid had made sure to keep him sitting squarely in the middle of the floor.

Dang it.

 _At least it was quiet_ , Chuck thought to himself as he idly flipped through the pages of one of the many Earth comics he’d been entertaining himself with. _Might as well count himself lucky for that_. It wasn’t often he got moments of quiet at all, whether it be before or after he’d crash-landed, and he couldn’t deny that it was almost pleasant. The light of a moon filtering in through one of the trailer’s windows, the sound of a song crackling quietly to a close on the record player, no-one calling for an attack or (in a more likely case, now that Chuck wasn’t in the midst of an intergalactic conquest) declaring another victory for “Kid Cosmic and the Local Heroes” as they were so laughably named.

If Earth were like this more often, maybe he could start to tolerate it. 

“Sleepover! Sleepover! Sleepover!”

“Shh, yes, Rosa, sleepover! But remember, this is a secret sleepover!” A sigh. “Chuck, you’re coming with us.”

Or maybe not. 

“What do you mean, ‘you’re coming with’- hey, put me down!” Chuck huffs with indignance as Jo, with Rosa held in one arm and an exhausted expression on her face, scoops him up with her free hand and plops him down back into the ever-loathed wagon that had quickly become his means of transport. “What, exactly, is going on here?”

“A lot of things,” Jo’s tone is almost apologetic as Rosa wiggles free from her grasp, hopping down to pilot the wagon in enthusiastic circles around her. “One; I am not letting you stay here with the Kid after what we found out about that tape. Two; I’m stuck with babysitting duty tonight and if Rosa herself wants someone else to come play with her, I’m not gonna refuse that. Three;” Jo stops, gesturing for Rosa to follow her as they begin the walk back towards the Flores’ house, “well, there isn’t actually a third reason.” 

“Figures.” Chuck groans, folding his arms and giving an impressively frustrated eye-roll. “Just what I needed; a break from dealing with one obnoxious Earthling to be dragged around by two, instead.” When Rosa turns to him, a curious expression on her face, he sighs. “At least you’re _partially_ tolerable.”

Rosa grins, giggling to herself. “We’re gonna play dinosaurs and princesses!” she informs Chuck proudly, taking a plastic crown off of her head and placing it onto his. A jewel falls off of it, sticking to his forehead. A blue glow of light emits from her ring, and she scoops Jo and Chuck up into her palm with an overwhelmingly loud; “and I’m gonna be the dinosaur!”

“Oh, come on,” Chuck calls back mockingly as the titanic toddler begins to stomp her way through the desert, Jo burying her face in her hands. “You _always_ get to be the dinosaur, don’t you? Aren’t you going to give anyone else a chance? Someone who might want a turn with, oh, I dunno, one of those Power Rings?”

“Not the Power Rings again, _please_ ,” Jo sighs, holding her own hand a little closer to her chest protectively. The girl looks more frazzled than the last time Chuck had seen her; a bright purple coat thrown on over makeshift pajamas and bags under her eyes from what was probably far too little sleep for a young Earthling. “Look, I get that you have your whole ‘super evil alien seeking galactic domination’ thing that you need to do, but these past weeks have been--”

“INCOMING!” Rosa interrupts with a cheer, shoving Chuck and Jo in through the living room window to her house, before shrinking back down and scrambling through the window herself with an awkward little plop onto the floor. 

“As I was saying,” Jo continues, untangling herself from her less-than-graceful landing among the couch cushions, “these past few weeks have gotten really weird, really quick, and I could _really_ use a break.” As if to emphasize her point, she flops down onto the couch, flailing her arms out in exasperation. 

“Ugh, tell me about it,” Chuck affirms, trying to set himself back upright from his upside-down position against the wall with little avail. 

At that, Jo perks up, raising a brow. “Oh, uh, can I, actually? I know you’re like, the bad guy, but,” she averts her gaze with a tired sigh, wrapping her arms around her legs, “I don’t exactly have anyone else I can talk to about this right now that isn’t Papa G or a little kid.”

Chuck, for the first time since arriving on Earth, has absolutely no idea how to respond. He can’t remember the last time someone asked for his help, much less someone who he’d been battling against for the better part of his time knowing them. He was an alien invader, a soldier of his Great Leader, and moreover, _definitely_ not a therapist. 

Still, he figures there isn’t much else he can do, unless the entire lower half of him decides to suddenly grow itself back. This situation was already so Grop-darned weird.

“I mean, if you want to?” he offers after a beat. Gathering his confidence, he adds, “You do realize that your lack of sleep is probably giving you a pathetically high risk of a lapse in judgement right now, and-”

“I know, I know,” Jo nods, a touch dismissive. “It’s just-” she curls up into a ball on the couch, arms around her knees, and slumps back against one of the cushions. “I’ve been meaning to move away from here for a while now. Before, it was just my mom that wanted me to stay, but with all this … whatever this is, I dunno if I’m gonna be able to do my own thing anytime soon. Now don’t get me wrong, I care a lot about my mom, and I care about the Kid, too,” she amends, hugging her legs a little closer. “I just - it’s so - _ugh_.” She groans, less in frustration and more in exhaustion, burying her face against her knees. “It’s a lot.”

“I see,” Chuck says, slowly. “I... don’t suppose this is all a normal thing around here?” he asks, tone only slightly less laced with barely-contained sarcasm. 

Jo shakes her head. “Not really, no.”

 _So it isn’t just him, then, huh?_ A part of Chuck wants to remark on how Earth really is as painfully run-of-the-mill as he’d thought, but something in him - pity, he figures - makes him hold his tongue. Instead, he opts to huff an “of course” and roll his eyes. 

A moment passes, as Rosa rushes back down the stairs from where she’d been hiding in her room with a delighted squeal. “Who wants makeovers?” she exclaims, holding up a box full of what Chuck can only assume is a mixture of glitter and human facial decorum. Before either he or Jo can answer, however, she’s already sat squarely in front of Chuck, glitter glue at the ready.

“Rosa, I don’t think that’s--” Jo starts, unable to keep a laugh from escaping as Rosa covers her hand in the sparkly substance and smacks it right in the middle of Chuck’s forehead. “Y’know what, I don’t think I’m gonna argue with that one,” she half-smiles. 

Chuck groans. _Typical pointless Earthling frivolity_. “Well, that makes one of us, then, huh?” 

“Hey, actually,” Jo continues, the sheer ridiculousness of the situation seeming to aid in heightening her mood, “you must get to see to all sorts of weird places, right? Y’know, being an intergalactic space alien and all, traveling the galaxy and stuff?”

The sudden question catches Chuck off-guard. "Oh, I wouldn't exactly call it 'traveling’," he quips bitterly, wiping at his face with annoyance. “I mean, sure, there was some going-from-place-to-place involved, but mostly it was just ‘wake up, do routine checks on the ships, listen to our Great Leader’s 11:00 self-gratifying speeches, fly around and destroy anything that stands in our way, go to bed’, and so on.” Under his breath, he adds, “at least until I get those Power Rings and the Great Leader recognizes how much better I am than the rest of those failure-bound flunkies.”

“Yeesh,” Jo grimaces. “You guys don’t even get lunch breaks?”

“Of course we don’t! Our species doesn’t need to _eat._ ” Chuck practically scoffs. “‘Lunch breaks’. Didn’t they teach you people anything in your silly little Earth educational facilities?”

“Well, for starters, they taught us that aliens don’t exist - well, not outside of comic books and action movies, anyways,” Jo replies, swinging her legs back over the side of the couch. “I mean, I know I’m supposed to be taking on ‘more responsibilities’ now that I’m 17, but I didn’t expect saving the world from space invaders and magical superpowers to be a part of that!” 

“Hey, think of it this way;” Chuck smirks mockingly in response, “if you really _do_ intend on keeping those Rings of Power all to yourselves, you wouldn’t need to worry about any idiotic responsibilities! Why, the world could be yours! You could become Earth’s own Great Leader! Y--”

Before Chuck can finish his backhanded taunt, he’s cut short by the sudden force of a pillow being thrown squarely in his direction. “Geez, at least there’s one thing the Kid’s comics got right;” Jo smirks back, more playful than antagonistic, “you guys sure do a lot of monologuing!” 

“Why you--” Chuck sputters with indignance, but another pillow directly to his face interrupts any attempt at a comeback. “So this was your plan, huh? To bring me all the way here so you could initiate some kind of bizarre surprise attack?”

Jo laughs, scooping Rosa up as she stands from the couch. “It’s not a surprise attack, you goofus, it’s a-”

“PILLOW FIGHT!” Rosa squeals happily, attempting to worm her way out of the older girl’s grasp to make a break for the rest of the couch cushions.

There’s a pause, as Chuck raises an eyebrow (or whatever could qualify for one, anyways) in suspicion. His plans hadn’t included playing around, much less with a bunch of kids who he was _supposed_ to be the enemy of. What would his Great Leader think, seeing him palling around with what could hardly be called a real threat? 

Cautiously, Chuck looks at the pillow haphazardly perched against his side, then back at Jo and Rosa. Jo and Rosa look back at him, expectant. Then, in one sudden move, he lifts the pillow up in his mouth and uses the force of his arms to launch himself right towards the girls - missing by a country mile as they step out of the way and Chuck is left with a face full of feathers on the floor.

“Oh,” he says, a flash of competitive determination in his eyes as Jo and Rosa exchange an excited grin, “you two are SO on.”

**Author's Note:**

> watch kid cosmic. watch kipo and the age of wonderbeasts while you're at it.


End file.
